July 22, 2008

Christian Bale needs to figure out when he’s NOT playing Batman, he can’t hit people. Bale’s mom and sister filed a complaint against him last night after some sort of incident at a London hotel. He (and his super high-powered lawyers) denies any wrong-doing. In the meantime, Christian’s co-stars are still trying to wrap their minds around the success of The Dark Knight. Aaron Eckhart who plays the new D.A. Harvey Dent (and eventually Two-Face) says it was an honor to be in the movie.

Estelle Getty was a very good mother. The actress, whose knack for being cast as a maternal unit paid off handsomely when she was cast as Beatrice Arthur's no-holds-barred mother on the long-running TV hit The Golden Girls, died early today at her Los Angeles home at the age of 84.

Film critic Roger Ebert has announced he’s following in co-host Richard Roeper’s footsteps and leaving their nationally syndicated review show At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper. Producers have tapped E!'s resident movie buff Ben Lyons and Turner Classic Movies go-to man Ben Mankiewicz as the new cinematic tastemakers on the weekend show. The best news of all this? Ebert owns the trademarked “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” so the show can’t use them after he’s gone.

Who knew that four years later, we'd still be talking about a wardrobe malfunction? A federal appeals court yesterday brought back memories of STAR Artists Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson's half-second peep show at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show when it threw out a $550,000 indecency fine. That’s right. No one is in trouble. All that outrage for nothing!

STAR Artist Natasha Bedingfield wraps up her first big headlining tour in the US this weekend and then moves on to opening for New Kids on the Block. Natasha’s hit songs all seem to be so relatable. So what’s her secret? She doesn’t have one. "I just try and write from a very real place, on issues that are quite universal...I don't have a formula."

STAR Artist Alanis Morissette has lined up a 38-city North American tour that kicks off in September. You’ll be able to check her out live at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee on October 5th.

22 years after the release of Top Gun, they've decided to make a sequel, and Tom Cruise is in talks to bring back Lt. Pete Mitchell. This time, the 46 year old Maverick is at the Top Gun school as an instructor who has to deal with a cocky new female pilot. Sounds like a perfect role for Katie Holmes.

With all these negative rumors recently about STAR Artist Madonna, her marriage and which New York Yankee she’s lovin’, Madonna’s health is suffering. A close friend tells me she’s “miserable” as she starts her tour and feels like “nobody has taken her side.” The speculation is all the bad press has affected her health so much so she has to cut back on rehearsing.

Jennifer Garner is pregnant. While Jen and Ben Affleck haven't been saying anything, their close friend, former Alias star Victor Garber, shared the good news with me, "Yes, she is." And word is Jen is already five months along! She and Ben are house hunting for a bigger place.

Briefly:The 34th season of Saturday Night Live will debut on September 13th.

Bill Murray, who probably wanted to hop a plane to escape the messy divorce issues that plagued him in May, will be jumping out of a plane at the 50th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show in August.